Theme: Illegal Employment

You can complain about instances of the illegal employment of children or adolescents to the nearest police station or fill out all the details that you know in a complaint form by the Ministry of Labour. You can access the same here.

No, the law specifically states the importance of a child’s education and so you should not force your child to quit school. Instead, you should encourage him or her to learn and work at the same time. You should keep in mind:

• Your child can only work in a family enterprise to help his or her own family and only work for the family.
• Your child should not be given work during school hours and between 7 pm and 8 am.
• Your child should not be engaged in tasks which may severely affect his education or homework or extra-curricular activity assigned to him or her.
• Your child should not be engaged in continuous tasks without rest which would make him or her tired. It is important to provide care and support for the child by providing breaks to refresh his health and mind. That is why the law states that the child should not work continuously for more than 3 hours.

The parents or guardians of the children who are working in violation of this law will generally not be punished for allowing their children to work.

However, this immunity does not apply if they make their child (who is under 14 years of age) work for commercial purposes or make their child (between 14 years and 18 years) work in a hazardous occupation or process.

The law does give them a chance to correct their wrong – when they are caught doing this the first time, they can settle it by paying money. However, if they make their child work again in violation of the law, they can be punished with a fine of up to Rs. 10,000.

We have been unable to locate sufficient information on the existence of the fund in the District. Despite filing an RTI, our query regarding this was not cleared.

India has signed two conventions, Convention 138 and 182 of the International Labor Organization. These two conventions say that:

• Minimum age of children for employment should not be less than completion of age of compulsory education, which is 14 years.
• Elimination of worst forms of child labour.

Yes, this is child labour and it is specifically stated in the child labour laws that performing on the streets for monetary gains is not allowed. Hence, what you can do is go to the nearest police station to file a complaint and the inspector will then look into the complaint.

Apart from sports and movies a child can work in other jobs such as:

• Cinema and documentary shows on television, like reality shows, quiz shows, talent shows. A child can also participate in a radio activity.
• Drama serials.
• Anchor of a show or event.
• Other artistic performances which the Central Government will permit in individual cases but these do not include street performances for monetary gains.

The employer has a duty to maintain a register which must be made open for checking by the government inspector during office hours. The register should contain the following details of all adolescent employees:

• name and date of birth
• working hours and periods of work as well as the periods of rest
• the type of work.